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Friday, December 31, 2004

Holidays have kept life busy for the most part.OK, the new Playstation 2 games (EA NHL2005 & LOTR: The Third Age) have kept things a bit busy, too.Christmas was pretty good over here I have to say, got some really good books (hopefully), DVDs (LOTR: ROTK EE) and some much needed clothes.

Finished up The Shadow Roads, the excellent conclusion to Sean Russell’s Swan’s War Trilogy and moved onto another Sean, Galveston by Sean Stewart.Also read the 10th anniversary hardcover of Marvels by Busiek and Ross.This is extraordinary visual storytelling, though having read Kingdom Come before Marvels, I can see the improvement in Ross’s style in KC.

Since this is the last day of 2004, I should probably tally off the books I enjoyed the most this year, in no particular order…of course over the next couple of days I may remember one or two.

Sir Apropos of Nothing by Peter David.I’ve long enjoyed David’s comic book work, but this was my first exposure to his prose writing and it may have been the most fun I had reading any book this year.This is a tongue-in-cheek jab at the Fantasy Quest/Heroic Fantasy novel, the laughs seem to come in the right spots and David told a very enjoyable story that both mocked the genre and its idiosyncrasies and fit within the mold very nicely.

Shadowmarch by Tad Williams.Anytime a new Tad Williams book is released, I am happy.Its hard to tell if this is quite up to par with his Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy, but so far, all the notes are sounding right and the story is wonderful.

Fool’s Fate by Robin Hobb.Sad that Fitz’s tale concluded but in the end, Mrs. Hobb did right by the witted bastard.She brought all three of the trilogies she has written together in this final volume of the Tawny Man trilogy.

The Charnel Prince by Greg Keyes.I’ve been impressed with everything I’ve read by Mr. Keyes and his skill continue to improve greatly with each book he writes.This is perhaps the best unfinished series in the genre.

Fat White Vampire Blues by Andrew W. Fox.Mr. Fox’s debut novel of an overweight vampire living the undead life in New Orleans.Like David’s Apropos novel, the tongue is planted in cheek and Fox plays with Vampire genre clichés.

Banewreaker by Jacqueline Carey.A stunning fantasy novel of impending war and the quest to destroy the dark lord.Sound familiar?Of course it does, but Carey takes the framework of the Lord of the Rings and spins an elegant tale from the “dark side” of the conflict.A nearly perfect read. From my SFFWorld.com review: Ultimately, a fantasy novel, with its mythical creatures and magical elements must succeed on the characters the writer brings to life. Consequently, these interesting characters and interesting story only account for a portion of a good book. To bring everything together, the writing and prose need to be readable, and in this, again, Ms. Carey has more than succeeded on all of these fronts.

The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower by Stephen King.The end of Roland’s quest, and in some ways, one of King’s most terrifying works of fiction.It was kind of sad to see this saga conclude, I’ve spent the majority of my adult life following Roland’s quest.I’ve seen King criticized for his endings in the past, but here, where the ending counted the most, I personally think he absolutely nailed it.

The Etched City by K.J. Bishop.In The Etched City, K.J. Bishop brings to light many themes - love, death, theology, and art. These are some of the Big themes of life and in the pages of her enchanting first novel, she manages to cull them together as consistent and stimulating threads part of the larger conversation. The Etched City is a fairly packed novel, considering its page-count is just over 375 pages, and it does require more than mere skimming….but on the whole, The Etched City is an extremely impressive debut by an author who, based upon this novel and the deserved acclaim it has received, looks to forge a very unique storytelling career.

City of Pearl by Karen Traviss From my SFFWorld Review:Reading an author’s first novel is always an interesting experience, "listening" to a fresh voice with perhaps something new to say. The writer’s reputation rests on her ability to convey an entertaining and thought provoking story, enough so readers will want to read more of the words the writer puts to paper. Karen Traviss has succeeded in doing all these things right in her debut novel, City of Pearl. This is a satisfying, stimulating novel of colonization, alien contact, and choices. While there is inherent inclusion of possible future technology, the strength of this novel, and its place as a great work of Science Fiction, is the implication of where humanity is going, as a society, and as a race.

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

In keeping with the holiday spirit of Christmas Week, my beer of the week is Samuel AdamsOld Fezziwig Ale. This beer is only available during Christmastime in Samuel Adams Holiday 12 pack. This beer has all the holiday spices you’d expect, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and orange peel. It is a delicious dark beer that has a wonderful hearty taste.

My author of the week is CS Friedman, an author who has bounced between the realms of Science Fiction and Fantasy, bringing to both sub-genres of Speculative Fiction strong storytelling abilities and a knack for creating compelling characters. I absolutely loved her Coldfire Trilogy – though the origins of the story are SF (humans colonize an earth-like planet), the feel and setting of the story place it more in Fantasy, as the society has more in common with medieval civilization than future and there is a magic of sorts. In this trilogy, she created one of the more compelling characters in fantasy-Gerald Tarrant. Tarrant initially is set as a villain, but he is one you can empathize with and almost admire. Her SF consists of In Conquest Born, The Madness Season, This Alien Shore and The Wildling, sequel to In Conquest Born. In the two of four that I’ve read, the novels are again marked with compelling characters and thought provoking stories. This Alien Shore was a New York Times notable book of the year.

Were these two Separated at birth?
Joe QuesadaUncle Kracker
Marvel Comics, EIC Musician

I don’t know where my head’s been lately, work has been annoyingly too busy, life has been hectic and we are only days away from a visit from the big guy in red. Somehow, I forgot to mention Conan yesterday in the good comics of 2004. The #0 issue came out last year and the ongoing reaches issue 11 this week. I haven’t read the old Marvel issues (now being reissued in TPB form by Dark Horse) so I can’t justifiably compare what Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith did to the monthly excellence Kurt Busiek and Cary Nord are producing. The sales have been great on the book and the fan and critical response have been spectacular. I think Mr. Howard would be pleased with the work Busiek and Nord are doing with his most famous of creations.

Another good thing for this DC-fanboy was Grant Morrison’s return to DC comics. Earlier this year saw the great looking Seaguy from Vertigo, a three-issue series that blended superheroics, apocalyptic sf and dark humor into a thought provoking series people are STILL trying to figure out. WE3, Grant’s animal SF story with Frank Quietly is 2/3 of the way complete and this, even though the characters are cybernetically enhanced talking animals, may be a more human story. Mr. Morrison also returned to JLA, in the form of a story arc for JLAClassified. Under his pen, JLA was DC’s flagship title in the late 90s. Rumors have him and Quietly working on Superman next year, so the future is only bright, on that front.

Monday, December 20, 2004

So I was greeted this morning at 6AM in the raw 12 degree cold with a flat tire. Goddamn was it cold. Frustrating as it was, I'm pretty thankful I got the flat pretty much in front of my house rather than on Route 287-a road any who travel it well tell you connects two of the planes of hell. The family get-together turned out pretty good, I've got plenty of great beer and food left over and everybody seemed to have a good time.

Bit of a correction from a couple of days ago. In my post about Karen Traviss, I mentioned her debut novel, City of Pearl. Seems I made a blunder, I thought the book published last year; however, if I had simply read the copyright page I would have seen it actually published in March of this year (2004). Which just goes to show how impressive the year has been for Karen Traviss, to have 3 novels publish in one year, not to mention the fact that one of those novels is the her debut novel AND great reviews. Let me just again double the kudos for Karen Traviss, as I finished Crossing the Line last night and was again most impressed with her work. It may be an understatement to say she is THE breakout Science Fiction writer of 2004.

2004 was a mediocre year for comics, the only two series that really stood out for me were Ex Machina and Peter David’sFallen Angel. While David’s series began last year, I only really started picking it up this year. The series really defies genre pigeon-holing and quite often, each issue raises more questions than it answers. DC is really supporting David's work and hopefully this series has at least a couple more years left, I'd love to see see it hit #50.

Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris’s Ex Machina mixes superheroics, politics and real world relevance better than any comic on the stands today. The artwork Tony Harris is maybe the best in comics today, he captures little nuances of body language and facial expressions that really bring the characters to life. And of course Vaughan is laying out great scripts and stories.

Mark Waid and Mike Weiringo have been telling really good Fantastic Four stories, which unfortunately is ending soon.

Identity Crisis, aside from Rags Morales’ art was a let down, JLA went down (the Byrne/Claremont mess, the Austen mess) but looks to be back on an upswing thanks to the fact that Kurt Busiek is now writing it is on an upswing. The Azzarello/Lee Superman has been a let down and the Bat-Crossover, what I read of it was so-so.

Friday, December 17, 2004

So for the third year in a row, Mrs. Blog o' Stuff and I are having both sets of parents, my aunt/uncle with their kids (the youngest of whom is our Godchild, the eldest is the hockey team we follow, the middle will be a gold medal winning gymnast) and my wife's aunt/uncle and their daughter (who should get a few athletic scholarship to college) over for the holidays. This is always a hectic thing and somewhat stressful since both my mother-in-law and father sometimes speak a little, shall we say, out of turn, and have diarrhea of the mouth. Anyway, it has turned out to be very nice day each of the last two years, Mrs. Blog o' Stuff does a spectacular job with the spread of food and everybody brings beer, so I'm usually well stocked for the subsequent month as our invitation always clearly asks the invitees to "bring libations and good cheer." The first year, we thought our hot water heater was dying the day before the party and this year, our vacuum cleaner died just as we finished trimming the tree this past weekend. Let's just say the dust-buster doesn'tt quite cut it when picking up the needles from the tree. I always hope to get one of those trees where the needles don't fall off.*** So those are my weekend plans.

Closing out the year-end list from a couple of days ago... are two debut novelists who really impressed me this year. (clicking on the title of each book will take you to my review of the book.)

Robert Buettner – His debut novel, Orphanage, published last month and is receiving a lot of good reviews and hefty words of praise. It is military SF, and with Buettner's military background, he is keeping up the fine tradition of stories of interstellar war set out in books like Heinlein's Starship Troopers and Orson Scott Card'sEnder's Game. Buettner's writing has a cinematic quality and the pace keeps the pages moving quite briskly. The sequel to Orphanage publishes next year and I can't wait to read it.

Minister Faust – Canadian media personality made quite a splash this summer when his genre-defying novel, Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad, was published by Del Rey books. This book mixes almost many genres – Science Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, Mythic Fiction, Mystery – and the final product is a fun, entertaining read.

For about the 800th time in the past couple of years, Randy Johnsonis almost aNew York Yankee. I've got mixed feelings on this one. Sure Johnson is a great pitcher, but the Yanks are doing what sent them down the river in the '80s, flushing out their farm system for older pitchers. When George gets a hard-on for a guy, he usually winds up getting him in the long run (See Clemens and Giambi).

Beer of the week: Tillburg's Dutch Brown Ale. Similar to Newcastle, but better, plus, it has a funky Jeroen Bosch painting on the bottle. Found this one at a local liquor store after talking beer with one of the guys working there, told him I liked Newcastle and he suggested I try Tillburg's, the rest is history.

Writer of the week, well, I think the five I highlighted the past couple of days will suffice.

***paraphrased from what the mother in A Christmas Story says when the family goes shopping for Christmas trees –"this isn't one of those trees where all the needles fall off, is it? " The greatest Christmas movie of my generation and ever, IMHO (yes, even better thanIt's a Wonderful Lifein my personal canon of Christmas entertainment).

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Perhaps with two weeks still remaining in 2004, it may be a bit early to start the best of prognostications. However, since I know what my reading plate will be filled with for the next couple of weeks, I think I can spout one mini-list: Best Newly Discovered Writer(s) – 2004, that is the author whom I first read this year (even if their debut novel was years ago) and look forward to reading in the future. I’ll post some today and the rest tomorrow.

Without further ado, here goes:

Karen Traviss – Her debut novel, City of Pearl, (click title for my review) published last year, but I read it this year. I thought it was one of the most impressive SF debuts I’ve read in some time and was enthralled by the hard questions her novel raised. I’m currently reading the follow-up, Crossing the Line and the third book in this series publishes next year, The World Before. Ms. Traviss also published a Star Wars novel this year, Republic Commando, and signed to write three more SW books, so there will be no shortage of her work in the future. Based on the two books I’ve read by her, this is a very good thing indeed. While the story takes place hundreds of years into the future, echoes of today are quite present – like conflicting world views, the power of the media, and genetic engineering. And she has created some really cool, interesting aliens.

E.E. Knight – Again, his debut novel, Way of the Wolf published last year, but I read it this year and very much enjoyed it. Way of the Wolf was the first in the sprawling saga entitled The Vampire Earth. His work has a pulpish feel to it, and is very entertaining. In the not-so-distant future, Earth has been taken over by Vampire Aliens, well Vampires have always been here on Earth, but they are actually a race of Ancient Ones, they’ve finally risen up to take over the planet. On the surface, this may seem a somewhat cheesy concept, but Knight makes it work, with engaging characters and stories told with great pace. I also read the second novel in the saga, Choice of the Cat, this year and I’m really looking forward to the third, Way of the Thunderbolt, next year. Mr. Knight has also written a Lara Croft novel and is under contract to write another series of books. Mr. Knight's Way of the Wolf won Compton Crook award for best first novel in science fiction, fantasy, or horror earilier this year.

Juliet Marillier – She’s been publishing fantasy for a few years now, most notably her Sevenwaters Trilogy. A couple of months ago the first novel in the series, Daughter of the Forest, was the SFFWorld Fantasy Book Club selection of the month and this gave me the opportunity to read her work. Ms. Marillier plays with a Celtic folk tale in the novel and spins out an entrancing story of a strong female character. I plan on reading the remaining books in the saga.

In an obvious move, DC is releasing and/or re-releasing some classic Batman material, beginning in March, to start getting the kids in the Batman-know:

Tales of the Demon – since Ra’s al Ghul (the Demon) is one of the primary characters in the new Bat-flick, this makes sense. These are stories penned by Denny O’Neill one of the Batman scribes over the past 25 years, and these are considered some of his strongest stories. Sure doesn’t hurt that Neal Adams is the artist on some of these, as well.

Batman: Chronicles Volume 1 – This one is long overdue. DC is reprinting EVERY Batman story in TPB form from Detective #27 going forward. EVERY SINGLE BATMAN STORY, in chronological order. This is a much more affordable way to get these stories than the highly priced DC Archive Editions. Perhaps once Bryan Singer's Superman gets closer to reality, DC will start a similar publishing program with the big Red S.

Batman: Year One Deluxe Edition – this is THE modern retelling of Batman’s origin by Frank Miller and Dave Mazzuchelli. Considered by many to be one of the defining superhero origin stories of all time and a truly amazing piece of graphic fiction, Miller intertwined Jim Gordon's rise in the Gotham police force with the appearance of the mysterous Batman. Along with Dark Knight Returns and the Alan Moore/Brian Bolland masterpiece A Killing Joke, Batman: Year One forms the holy trinity of modern Batman stories. Batman Begins screenwriter David Goyer has acknowledged this as the primary influence for his script of the forthcoming film. This thing is has a price of $19.95, with some unreleased art, so I will definitely be picking it up, even though I have the original issues.

In my younger days of comic book reading and collecting, I gravitated more towards the Superman family of titles than the Batman family of titles. I’ve found over the past few years, that while I still do enjoy good Superman stories, I’m more drawn to Batman. What does this say about me? Am I learning to look more to what is possible than what is impossible? That a hero in a black bat suit is more plausible than a man who can fly and bend steel appeals to me more now is interesting. Either way, my favorite hero is still TheFlash.

Monday, December 13, 2004

So out of the darkness and into the light / Sparks fly everywhere in sight / From my double barrel, 12 gauge / Can't lock me in your cageYou see us comin' / And you all together run for cover / We're takin’ over this town

Perhaps not the deepest, philosophizing lyrics, but set to the grindings of Dimebag’s guitar and Phil Anselmo’s gut wrenching voice, Cowboys from Hell (both the song and the album) by Pantera, is like a shot of adrenaline injected into the heart. On their own, the lyrics from the song do evoke some pretty cool kick ass imagery. Inspiration for stories maybe. Writers, find inspiration for their words with every iota of their senses, from the sounds and music they hear to everything they see and experience. Good writers can take all these sensual experiences and spit out words that encapsulate these things. Great writers do these things and can move people with their words.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately of the darkness in peoples lives, oddly now at Christmastime. I often in more upbeat moods this time of year, but sometimes the darkness, in a good way, surrounds you and infects your daily thoughts. So to borrow the line from the song, “out of the darkness and into the light” life goes on. I take the dailies and write in my head, and sometimes I’ll let things gestate for quite sometime before putting them to paper – this works sometimes. Others, I write very much in a reactionary manner, put the thoughts and emotions to computer screen before the thoughts have fully matured in my head. That works too, sometimes.

I plan posting some best of the year stuff soon, but I have to sit and think for sometime about the books, specifically. In the past, I kept a spreadsheet of all the books I read, as I read them, and gave them each a little rating between 1 and 10. For whatever reason, at the end of last year, I stopped keeping track in this spreadsheet. Ahhh…the combination of anal-retentiveness and procrastination, something sure to drive one’s wardrobe to the exclusivity of those white jackets with the sleeves strapped into each other in the back.

Reading through Karen Traviss’ excellent 2nd novel, Crossing the Line. Traviss writes very thought-provoking SF, focusing on the interaction human and aliens with very different worldviews. This book reminds me of Octavia Butler’s wonderful Xenogenesis/Lillith’s Brood saga and both books do have the sociological science fiction feel of Ursula K. Le Guin’s SF.

Speaking of Ursula K. Le Guin, tonight, the Sci Fi Channel begins the two-part mini-series The Legend of Earthsea, based upon the watermark novels A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan by legendary writer, Ursula K. LeGuin. This has the looks of a good adaptation/offering from the Sci Fi Channel. However, some of their stuff is hit or miss – I thought the two Dune miniseries were very good, Taken from 2 years ago was very good, even if the ending was a bit of a let down. And I am a huge FarScape fan. The channel has shown some dreck too – the mediocre Riverworld and their deluge of cheesy Satruday night movies. However, Ursula K. Le Guin has made some not-so-supportive comments of the adaptation (Scroll down to the 13 November entry). [I originally saw this link from Matthey Cheney's Mumpsimus blog]

When any book that has been so revered and honored is translated to film, there will always be some quibbles from fans. It is a bit dismaying to see such quibbles from the author of the books, though. I read the books and thought they deserved every accolade they received. Either way, I plan on trying to watch tonight with an open mind.

Friday, December 10, 2004

A long, emotionally chaotic week draws to a close. The week started on a high note with the concert, hit grief upon learning of the Death of Dimebag and ends with the ever present dark cloud of bills today. Hopefully seeing some pals tonight and trimming the tree over the weekend will turn things back around.

I wasn’t the world’s biggest Pantera/Damageplan fan, but I did really enjoy the music. For whatever reason, I’m still trying to understand what could drive a person to shoot 5 bullets into the head of a great musician with a reputation for being great to his fans.

Life is what you make it, hard times are, of course a relative thing. I’m a relatively healthy person, I’m married to great gal, I have a pretty good family so I don’t have much to complain about right? Unlike a good friend of mine, I don’t have to sit helpless as I watch a close family member deal with cancer. I didn't just witness my brother murdered on stage for no reason. I’m not bankrupt and destitute. I’m employed. So what right do I have to be moody and down on myself? It’s all relative to your own, personal situation, I guess.

It with those thoughts the following words flowed from my head to the keyboard….

Life is a dark and gloomy thing, peppered occasionally with illuminating specks of light. Life puts constraints on the way you want to get by and frustrations mount when you rail against the unmoving wall of ineptitude. You do your best and it often gets you nowhere. You try your best it gets you even less than nowhere. People ask of you to make castles out of specks of cobbled stones. Castles to house immortals and giants, but with only those cobbled stones, you can only make moatless castles, castles unfit for even the King of Ants and God of Nothing. You seek help from those you are told you can trust, but they are nowhere to be found at the hour of reckoning, having meandered towards their own selfish and foolhardy gains.

When you are presented with situations with which you have no control of the final outcome, what can you do? How can you achieve a piece of mind that the goal in which you’ve become entangled spirals out of control, when you’ve done all in your power to build the proverbial Castle of Immortals? You cannot achieve a piece of mind with these things. You cannot grasp that which you feel is rightfully yours when those who hold dominion over you are even less prepared for the rigors of their life than you are. These fools who miraculously have glided by on the wings of plastic smiles and inferiority smile to your face, but cave-in when your back is turned. They think only of appeasing the moment and not the hour, day and week of greater consequence. Strong words will crumble under a weak spine and offers little for recompense in your life. Distance yourself from these fools if you can, they will do nothing for you.

When you want to achieve a piece of mind disconnected from the reality into which you’ve been thrust is when the ordered days of your life erupt into chaos. From this chaos is born a new path to piece of mind. A new path littered with ineptitude, but an ineptitude you can ignore and still achieve your steadfast goals.

Life is but a path of unreason, with small bursts of happiness: The warm embrace of your loved one on a cold night; a cold glass of beer after a long day of drudgery; a perfectly aimed shot, practiced at gruelingly for uncountable amounts of time. These things for which we struggle through the daily grind of life sometimes, sometimes are worth the struggle. Other times the question, a very simple question, is often asked: Why?

In this reality, we may never have the definitive answer to that complex, one-word question. Fighting against the barriers life throws at us brings us closer to the answer and a defining of who we are and why we continue, inching towards daylight in a cavern of dark, craggy, and amorphous shapes. Answers within questions; changing questions when the answers are secured. This is the life we are given to come to grips with.

You scored as Chaotic Neutral. A Chaotic Neutral person is someone who is self-motivated to the extreme. Thier actions may sometimes confuse others, due to their lack of moral affiliation. They have little respect for laws, and avoid both the temptation of evil and a feeling of duty to do good. These people can go along with either side of an argument- as long as they benifit from the result!

Thursday, December 09, 2004

6 years ago today I asked the most important question of my life and was greeted with the sweetest laughter I’ve ever heard. My wife accepted my proposal of marriage. Every year on this day we go to the same restaurant we went that night and celebrate the day.

I just found this out after typing this whole post…In very sad news today (http://eddietrunk.com/news/article.php?news_id=1594), guitarist Dimebag Darrell was shot and murdered last night (12/8). Dimbeag was the guitar player of Damageplan, but many people may remember him from Pantera one of the best, most consistent Metal bands of the 90s. While grunge was taking over the rock scene, Pantera was kicking ass, carrying on the Metal tradition set forth by Metallica and Megadeth. Their third album, Far Beyond Driven, debuted at #1 on Billboard’s then new Soundscan system. I saw Pantera at the Roseland ballroom during that tour (1994/95?) and it was a great show. I was sad to see the band break up, but even more sad now that they will never reunite. A moment of silence for an excellent guitar player killed in a completely stupid and senseless act.

My writer of the week is Michael Chabon. The Pulitzer Prize winning writer is on the cover of this month’s Locus magazine, he’s got a short novel out (The Final Solution), an edited volume of Short stories (McSweeny’s Enchanting Chamber of Astounding Tales). His Pulitzer prize winning novel, The Adventures of Kavalier and Klay is our generations Great American Novel. Mr. Chabon is an advocate of comic books and fantastic fiction and a supremely gifted writer.

1. What did you do in 2004 that you'd never done before?
Voted for president, rather embarrassing since I’m now 30.
2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?Yes but not completely. I continued writing but didn’t write as much as I would have liked. Will probably make another resolution, but that’s a secret.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?Yes.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No.

5. What countries did you visit?
The ones in my head.

6. What would you like to have in 2005 that you lacked in 2004?
A house and more income to buy the house. The start of an NHL season.

7. What dates from 2004 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?November 7 – the day I turned 30.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?Maybe finishing the installation of laminate flooring in my townhouse.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?Illness – no. Injury – yes, cut a gash on my thumb knuckle down to the bone, and needed 6 or 7 stitches. Much less serious than it sounds.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
A new suit and probably a book or two.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?Randy Johnson – a perfect game at his age, or any age, is simply amazing and one of the rarest achievements in all of sports, though this is more achievement than behavior.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?The NHL players union. The FCC.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Bills, bills, and bills, gifts, comics and books.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?Nothing really, maybe seeing my cousin’s hockey team win a couple of tournaments.

16. What song will always remind you of 2004?Shinedown’s .45 or U2’s Vertigo. Probably Vertigo since it is all over the place.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
Yes I am.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Write more and save more money

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Procrastinate

20. How will you be spending Christmas?All over Union County, New Jersey, ‘Eve with my parents, Day with my in-laws and the week before they will all be at our house..

22. Did you fall in love in 2004?
Not so much fall in love, but still falling in love with my wife. Yes, I’m a sap.

23. How many one-night stands?0

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Without a doubt, Lost. This is a prime example of great storytelling, something VERY rare on television these days. This along with Smallville is probably the only show I watch on a regular basis.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?Hate is a strong word, though there are a number people who I dislike that I didn’t dislike or even know last year.

26. What was the best book you read?This is tough, considering I read about 50 books or so. I was planning doing a whole post on my “best of ’04,” stay tuned.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Either Shinedown or Dropbox

28. What did you want and get?Playstation 2. Mrs. Blog ‘o Stuff surprised me with that one.

29. What did you want and not get?A house.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?Almost as tough as the book question, perhaps The Incredibles or Saw.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?I turned 30, spent the day with my wife, relaxed and did some writing.

32.What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?Winning the lottery, but of course that would entail actually buying some sort of lottery ticket.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2004?Dockers and polo shirts during the day, most of the other times shorts.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Does being in love with Catherine Zeta-Jones, Faith Hill, Charlize Theron and Nicole Kidman count?

36. What political issue stirred you the most?The big-brother mindset our president seems to be taking, the erosion of our personal freedoms, what seems to be the reunification of church and state, and the continuing distrust of the “people in charge.”

37. Who did you miss?Opie and Anthony. Ron and Fez.

38. Who was the best new person you met?Probably my friend’s new baby Nicholas.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2004:
Not so much a new lesson, but something that was reinforced: trust can only go so far.

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Godsmack was absolutely amazing last night, probably one of the top 3 or 4 concerts I have ever seen. Last night, I also think Godsmack supplanted Metallica as my #2 band. If I have any complaints about the concert it isn’t about Godsmack, it is the venue. The doors opened at 7PM but the band did not go on until 9PM, two hours of standing and waiting. I think the venue just wanted to get some beer money from all the attendees. The good thing about getting there early, though was how close I got to the stage. At the end when Shannon (Larkin) was giving high fives to the crowd, I was close enough to shake hands – only one (smaller) person was between where my wife and I stood and the stage. Mrs. Blog ‘o Stuff is kind of in love with frontman Sully and she was ecstatic to be so close.

When Godsmack came out at 9PM, they started off with Asleep (Awake as it appears on TheOtherSide) and the crowd was 100% into it from the opening. They went on to play most of the songs from The Other Side as well as Realign, Serenity and an amazing version of Voodoo. Usually at Metal/Hard Rock concerts there is a mosh-pit, but before Godsmack even came out, their manager asked us not to form a mosh-pit, this was going to be a different concert. The band was in top form throughout, from Robbie Merril’s bass solo, to the dueling drums of Shannon Larkin and Sully (on bongos), something I’ll never get tired of seeing, to Tony Rombola on guitar, everything was great.

They ended and came out for the obligatory encore, though in pretty cool move, Sully introduced Lee Richards and John Kosco of Dropbox (the band Sully signed to his own label, Realign records) on vocals. Lee, one of the original members of Godsmack had been sitting in on many of the songs throughout the night. John and Lee performed one of their own Dropbox songs and my god does Kosco have a powerful voice, similar to both Chris Cornell and the late Layne Staley. Sully then came out again and everyone performed Touche. The last song was an awesome blues jam, something about a reefer, a woman from above and whiskey, with Sully on harmonica and singing with Kosco. Tony did a nice guitar solo in the middle of it and the song, to steal a cliché, really blew the roof off the place, sending everyone home happy and satisified.

When their manager told us the show would be different, he was right. A couple of points during the concert, Sully had a Q&A session with the crowd, allowing lucky members of the audience to ask questions. Probably the most important question was when the next album will be released. Godsmack 4, as they are calling it right now, will be released, they hope, in Fall 2005.

Like I said, of all the concerts I’ve been to, this is probably the #3 concert for me – it was different, you could really see the amazing talents of all these musicians on vivid display and they made you really feel like a part of the show. Anybody passing these guys off as knock off’s of Metallica or Alice in Chains (as I’ve seen people critical of the band say) really, really needs to see them perform live. They have an incredible passion for their music and it shines through in their performance.

As we were all walking out we were given free tickets to a metal tribute show, with tribute bands to the following bands: Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Pantera. I just might attend that one since it is a Friday.

Monday, December 06, 2004

Not much FSF or Comics to talk, at least until the very end of this post. Music and the holidays are today's themes.

I’m very excited since I’m going to see Godsmack perform an acoustic set at the Starland Ballroom tonight. I saw Disturbed at Starland over the summer, and while it was about 90 degrees inside, Disturbed was very good. Starland is a really great venue a) because it is only about 25 minutes from my house and b) it is just about the perfect size for concerts, good amount of room to move around but intimate enough that you really can see the band. This will be the third time I will see Godsmack in concert. I saw them about a year ago at Asbury Park’s Convention Hall. That was a great concert, I got as close as humanly possible to the stage and of the 20+ or so concerts I’ve seen, it was very near the top of the list. They are a GREAT live band.

I saw Godsmack for the second time a couple of months ago when they opened for Metallica at the Meadowlands, which also happened to be the third time I saw Metallica. I saw Metallica for the first time back in ’91 with about 10 of my high school pals and it was the best concert experience I ever had - 3 hours or Metallica with no opening band, before they cut their hair and got all touchy-feely going and into therapy. I saw Metallica again last summer at the Summer Sanitarium tour, with a bunch of other bands, Limp Bizkit (not bad), Linkin Park (horrible, but I don't like them anyway), Def Tones (not good, but I think their sound system was off), and Mudvayne, (not bad). Metallica was still in top form and had a good set list, with a lot of pre-Load/Reload stuff. However, the concert from about two months ago left me very disappointed. Godsmack, while great, didn’t get enough time to play, the crowd was pretty thin since the concert started relatively early at 7PM and Metallica played ok, but the set list was pretty bad. Metallica didn’t play enough from Puppets, …Justice, or Kill ‘em All. They played more than half of the Black Album and too much garbage from the Load/Reload crap albums. It was like they were promoting the Black Album, my brother in-law, my wife, and I were all very let down.

So now, my brother-in-law, my wife and I and some friends will see Godsmack perform tonight. I don’t think there is an opening act, so a whole two hours of pure Godsmack should be great. I really think one measure of how well a band plays and performs is when things are stripped down and acoustic. Godsmack’s acoustic EP The Other Side is great, Sully is an amazing front-man and drummer, and the band members are all very talented musicians. I’m expecting a great concert.

In holiday news, today is Little Christmas in the German/Austrian traditions. There are quite afew traditions surrounding the Krampus and Little Christmas. As I was brought up, on December 5, the Krampus, an impish-devil like figure, pretty much the Joker to Santa’s Batman, travels the night with Santa. Santa and the Krampus leave “gifts.” If the kid is misbehaving, the Krampus leaves coal in the stocking as a warning that he or she better start being nice or the kid will get more Coal on Christmas morning. If the kid has been behaving, then he or she gets a little stocking stuffer gift basically saying, keep up the good work. My parents always threatened me around this time by warning me to be good or the Krampus will visit. Mrs. Blog-o-stuff and I have been keeping up this tradition since before we were married. Luckily I didn’t get any coal, and of course she didn’t either, so this bodes well for Christmas morning at the Blog-o-Stuff househould.

Pretty busy weekend with Christmas things like getting the tree, putting lights on the tree and outside the townhouse, Christmas shopping and the seemingly never-ending floor installation project I’ve been doing; so again, I feel like I need a day off to recoup after the weekend. In my shoppings, I picked up the third of Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s Christmas Trilogy, The Lost Christmas Eve. On the second listen right now and it is a bit different and has a more metal and operatic feel than their previous two Christmas albums (Christmas Eve and other Stories, The Christmas Attic), but still quite good. One of these years, my wife and I will get to one of their live holiday performances.

Thankfully, the Yankees seem to be getting rid of the annoying players, no more Lofton, no more Heredia and hopefully soon, no more Giambi. Maybe they will be watch-able next year. Charley Steiner also left the Radio booth. I loved Steiner when he was behind the desk on ESPN and all the great ESPN commercials he was in, but he just didn't work well broadcasting the Yankees.

Well, that’s it for now, in the next day or two I’ll let you, my millions…..and millions of readers, know how the concert turned out.

Thursday, December 02, 2004

I just posted my review of KJ Bishop’s debut novel, The Etched City for SFFWorld. With that in mind, Ms. Bishop gets my writer of the week award. Ms. Bishop was nominated for the World Fantasy Award last year, as the small-press publisher, Prime Books, published The Etched City in 2003. Last week, it received a wider release under one of Random House’s SF imprints, BantamSpectra. Her name has been around the net for the past year in nothing but praise-worthy tones, let me say the praise is justified and I’m excited about reading more of her work.

Thanks to the banzai cat, I’ve checked out Cheryl Morgan’s latest issue of Emerald City, one of the best and most consistent web-zines covering Fantasy and Science Fiction. Cheryl provides in-depth reviews, for starters. And any fan of FS&F considering making a visit to a Convention should read the ‘zine, she always has great coverage of the conventions she attends and chairs, providing a snapshot of what you may expect should you attend a con. Cheryl generally publishes on a monthly basis. This issue, she’s got a review of Tad Williams’ Shadowmarch, and in it she gives an excellent overview of not just Shadowmarch, but some of Tad’s past work and what truly makes him one of the best modern fantasy writers publishing today. Click over there and read it, you shan’t be disappointed.

As I feared, last night’s episode of Smallville was a typical paint by numbers, what does kryptonite do to people this week episode. After about 25 minutes into the show, I switched to watch Rudolph, which was shown for the 40th year. Yes I’m 30, but so what? Along with Santa in the Thanksgiving Day Parade, this is the other great signifier that the Christmas season is truly in full swing. Last year’s Last year’s Elf, with Will Ferrell, paid a classy homage in its opening to all the Rankin-Bass (creator of the Rudolph special) Christmas specials.

My beer of the week is Bass Ale, which compliments last week’s beer Guinness quite nicely as the bottom of the famous Black & Tan. Bass is an English beer, very tasty and pretty easy to find in your local liquor store or bar.

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

The last month of the year is now upon us, and with it, the Christmas season as well.

Work and life have been hectic lately, so I haven’t had as much reading time as I normally like and blogging is slower than I’d like as well. I should have had my review of KJ Bishop’s The Etched City posted at SFFWorld last week, but life always gets in the way. Although it is fairly short at 375+ pages, she has packed a lot of thought-provoking ideas in there and I’m enjoying it. I’ve managed to keep up with my novel writing, though, something always easier said and thought about than done.

I’ll only be picking up a few books at the comic-shop this week, FallenAngel, Detective and Superman/Batman.

Smallville could be interesting again tonight, it looks like Lana finally finds out about Clark’s heritage. Let’s hope they don’t hit the reset button like they normally do at 8:45PM.